1 Month in Cartagena

For the first few brief seconds, I still wake up not knowing where I am. The walls, the furniture, the view out the window… the familiarity hasn’t set in. Yet, I feel little more at ease with just 1 month in Cartagena under our belt. I am still stumbling through most of my every day actions, but it doesn’t get me quite as flustered and I think most people are forgiving of my lack of Spanish skills.

I am still very much in the observation phase of living in a new country. I don’t feel like I have enough experience to make any grand declarations, just that I am trying to put together our daily routines, explore our new city and help my kids to start to feel settled. This takes a lot longer than you would think, as we are still living in transitional housing and getting the lay of the land.

We did take the kids to see the new Storks movie (in Spanish) and I wondered if they would really care that they didn’t understand the jokes or every detail of the movie….and they didn’t. They were happy to eat popcorn and be dazzled by some slapstick animation. I know that perfect can’t get in the way of good enough.

This month we also logged in quite a few restaurant hours. Some amazing, some sub par and some surprising new treats along the way, and a ton of ice cream.  You can’t expect it to taste like home, but you can expect it to be good. I have a post on food that I am putting tougher in my head, so stay tuned for that in the near future.

Living in a location where seasons that don’t change, creating a “cozy” home can go along way to making everyone feel a little more normal. New slippers, pumpkin bread (with more bananas around here than pumpkin, I used this recipe) and the daily thunderstorms sure help everyone feel all the warm fuzzy’s around here.

To try and sum up 1 month in Cartagena, I will say that we are optimistically exploring. This is still so new and unfamiliar, living the middle of a city, significantly warmer weather and not a lick of English spoken. However, this adventure is what we were aiming to find, and now we have to meet the challenge.

As for the rest of today, I may not be wearing any cozy sweaters, but I plan on turning up the air conditioning and making a pot of turkey chili. Happy Fall Everyone!